Electrical connections in many applications are commonly made by soldering, crimping, or clamping separate conductors together. These methods were adequate when the separate conductors were wires of various gauges, however, the tendency towards miniaturization and increased complexity of electrical systems have made traditional methods for making electrical connections problematic.
Connectors increasingly require higher connector pin densities (i.e., more pins and less connector area). For example, a line of Low Force Helix ("LFH") connectors made by Molex Incorporated of Lisle, Ill. includes connectors ranging from 60 pins to 240 pins. Molex's "LFH" 50 I/O Shielded connector requires four stacked rows of fifteen pins to fit within a rectangular area of less than one inch wide by less than a third of an inch high. Similarly, Molex's "LFH" Matrix 75 Board-to-Board Unshielded 240 Circuit Vertical connector requires ten stacked rows of twenty-four pins to fit within a rectangular area of two inches wide by less than seven-tenths of an inch high. For all of the connectors in the above-mentioned line of products, as well as connectors generally, each connector pin must be connected to a corresponding wire element in a cable. The close physical proximity of connector pins to one another tends to make soldering unreliable, as solder overflow and wire misalignment can cause short circuits between connector pins. Crimping or clamping mechanisms for connector cables like the ones previously mentioned can be time-consuming, especially if each individual wire element must be crimped or clamped individually. Further, crimping or clamping the wires can cause physical trauma which weakens the wires and can ultimately lead to open circuits.
A known way of dealing with these problems involves using a dielectric body with metal contacts fitted within the body. While this type of body allows an electrical connection to be made between the connector pins and the cable wires, the addition of the metal contacts inside the dielectric body is undesirable for a number of reasons, including that it generally increases the cost per unit significantly.
The present invention is a device, and related method, which facilitates making an electrical connection, reliably and inexpensively, while avoiding the drawbacks of known devices and methods.